


Fazed

by onlyhereforellick



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, post ep 18x05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28871004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlyhereforellick/pseuds/onlyhereforellick
Summary: He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep. He sure as hell couldn’t go home.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Comments: 8
Kudos: 91





	Fazed

**Author's Note:**

> quick and dirty post ep to 18x05 because I CANT HELP MYSELF
> 
> That ending scene screamed this sorry

He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep. He sure as hell couldn’t go home.

_Nothing fazes him._

_Well maybe some things should._

Nothing fazed Nick, nothing. Never had.

He’d survived too many years of deep cover to let things faze him.

And yet.

Here he was.

Driving aimlessly, indubitably fazed.

The heavy dread seeing emergency vehicles. The lead pit settling in his stomach when it wasn’t Ellie on the stretcher. The sheer fear of realizing she was on the charred plane. The ripping agony when a second explosion thundered in front of him, helpless.

He’d been fazed.

But he shouldn’t be.

This wasn’t Nicholas Torres. He didn’t do _this_. He didn’t feel _this_.

He couldn’t.

But he was.

_Well maybe some things should._

It was almost a cry for help. Masked under the pretense of worry for McGee, it was there. _Wasn’t it?_

Had she had enough close calls? Had she had enough of this game?

_Had he?_

His thoughts swirled as the sun rose. The DC skyline waxing poetically in the face of yesterday’s events.

He looked down to find himself parked in the hospital parking lot. Looked to his right and saw Ellie’s truck slowing to a stop a mere couple spots over.

A shell of his body filled with conflicting thoughts exited his Jeep. Staring at the ground he made is way over to meet her.

_Nothing fazes him._

_Well maybe some things should._

Her soft voice despite all she’d been through broke through his reverie, “Nick?”

He glanced up and took in her growing bruises but washed hair.

Her arm reached out and ran down the length of his stopping at his wrist, causing his eyes to flick to their touching skin on reflex. She continued, “Did you not go home, Nick?”

It was then he realized he hadn’t. He hadn’t done much of anything in the last eight hours. He knew he didn’t feel like going home, but he didn’t realize he actually didn’t.

His own words continued to sound in his head.

_Nothing fazes him._

His eyes snapped up to hers with such fervor, he noticed the slight widening to hers as she took in his mood shift.

He moved his wrist to grasp her hand purposefully but gentle on her bruises. Her mouth popped open in response.

“Ellie, I was-” his voice caught in his throat, just like it had on that tarmac, “I was terrified. I thought I had lost you.” She gulped but Nick went on, “I’ve had the feeling before, but this time- this was all-consuming. This hit me square in the chest like an 18 wheeler. And I thought-” looking up to the sky he blinked back a year, “I thought I was a man who shouldn’t be fazed. A man who shouldn’t let something, or someone, underneath their skin.” Nick locked eyes with her again, hoping like hell she could hear the genuineness to his words, “I thought I was a man who not only shouldn’t, but couldn’t, fall in love.”

The gasp that fell from her lips preceded her next actions.

He’d never imagine in a million years she’d have flung herself into his arms on the tarmac. Or gripped so tightly it seemed like she wouldn’t let go. Or secretly inhaled deeply once her head was buried in his neck.

So when he didn’t imagine she’d answer with a heart-stopping kiss, he honestly should have known better.

Her hands wrapped quickly behind his neck as his moved to encircle her waist. Lips tenderly finding each other with the strongest passion he’d ever known.

Perfectly fazed, for all the right reasons.


End file.
